408 Ate Michelle’s Carnival with Tulong sa Kapwa Kapatid

Sunday, December 7, 2014

Written by Secretary, Glenn Costales

The sky was unusually dark for an early afternoon. Light rains threatened and Typhoon Ruby continued to inch its way towards Metro Manila. Despite the uncertainty of the weather, Ate Michelle Cruz gathered her friends at La Mesa Eco Park in Quezon City to join her as she celebrated her birthday with 40 kids from Tulong sa Kapwa Kapatid (2KK). 2KK is a volunteer-driven, community-based organization that provides values-building and educational activities to children in the Payatas area.

With prayers for clear skies directed heaven’s way, the Carnival-themed event continued on as scheduled. The kids arrived with much excitement as they got to experience once more the forest-like feel of the park. Everyone assembled at the Petron amphitheater with Ate Michelle even providing Christmas-colored red and green shirts to get them in the holiday spirit.

The volunteers and kids soon paired up and were distributed into four (4) groups. After a few minutes of getting acquainted, everyone prepared for the first game – Regalo o Bayong. Much like the variety show game on TV a few years back, the volunteers and kids were asked a trivia question which they had to answer by lining up in the correct letter of choice (A, B, C, D). Surprisingly, a pair soon emerged as the winner only after a few questions. The pair then had to negotiate with Kuya Harvard whether to get the Regalo or the Bayong. In the spirit of the season of course, they ended up getting both. It was a fun and informative game to really break the ice between the volunteers and kids.

The event then proceeded to its next game – Dance Showdown. The 4 groups had to choreograph their own steps and ‘battle’ each other to randomly selected songs. Everyone had a blast strutting and moving to the songs with one group eventually besting the 3 others.

The entire group then settled down for a jaw-dropping show by Dad’s Acrobats. It was an incredible display of agility and balance (and not to mention courage) that left everyone amazed.

With those activities in the bag, everyone was served a generous Jollibee meal. As they sat down, the volunteers and kids got some more time to talk and also to see the carnival attractions in the venue. It consisted of a Ring Toss game, Balloon Darts and even a fishing game. Also roaming around the venue were Giant stilt-walkers whom everyone happily high-fived and took pictures with.

As a final game, the whole group lined up side-by-side to play the Let It Go game. In this game, everyone was given a balloon which they had to blow up. With a boost from the air inside, the balloons were simply ‘let go’ to see how far they would reach. A kid winner was soon declared after his balloon crossed the finish line first.

As the event concluded, the volunteers and kids gathered for a final group picture to complete the day’s festivities. The kids then gave their kuyas and ates a big embrace before saying goodbye. They didn’t leave however without their Christmas presents courtesy of Ate Michelle and her friends.

The gloomy-clouds may have lingered throughout the event. It hardly mattered though as the smiles, cheers and laughter radiated much stronger from the volunteers and kids. And as if the blessing was not enough, not a single raindrop fell until after the event finished. It was indeed an extraordinary occasion.

Our heartfelt thanks go out to Ate Michelle and her friends for spending the day with the kids of 2KK. The joy of giving is really magnified this time of the year but we hope their experience will continue to inspire them to reach out to people in the years to come.